That said, I've always wondered if it is a sneaky way to spot looners in real life, looking for the one person who not only has a beachball at the beach anyway (pretty rare here in the UK in my experience), but then has it blown up so incredibly tightly it looks like even touching it will make it explode

Lol this is me

Surely "Blown up so incredibly tightly it looks like even touching it will make it explode" is when you know balloons and inflatables are blown up properly

Surely "Blown up so incredibly tightly it looks like even touching it will make it explode" is when you know balloons and inflatables are blown up properly

I was under the impression that this is the only way to inflate balloons or inflatables. ;P Tight is right! For me, if the inflatable has wrinkles, it doesn't look right. As Vicci stated towards the top of this thread, "All wrinkles must be blown out of it, then add some more breaths for good measure." Not verbatim, but that's my take anyway.

As you guys& girls have stated this repeatedly it would be possible, I need your advise: for me it's split seams or holes at the poles but never actually a "bang".

So, how do you do it by mouth inflation?

They all fail differently but the only way I've ever done that was with my girlfriend and a 42 inch that I wasn't paying attention to. Eventually I blew it till it popped. Brand and size are important, as well as speed probably

Originally Posted by Vicci
I find the best inflation level is reached when you push the valve inside, then a few minutes later it pops back out

I love this but don't expect it to last long!

The best real-life pop I ever saw was this with a "20 inflatable football at a party, whilst at Uni. It had been blown-up until it was about "30 and straining at the seams, and it was cold in the room so the vinyl wasn't stretched... it was placed on the ground, someone ran up and gave it a kick, BOOM, split from end to end right down a seam.

The pops/splits tend to depend on what stress the toy is under, and the make, in my experience. Swimrings and things with complex concave curves seem to just split, but because a ball is all convex curves it seems to be to do with other factors. For some reason Poundland 'Jumbo' beachballs always seem to fail when overinflated with a split between the colour panels near the ends, depending on if they're being sat on/laid on. When overinflating them seem to develop pin-hole leaks between the colour panels and the little round end panels, at least when I've used a manual pump.

I found this picture over the weekend and thought it might be of interest, on the subject of 'how tight' to inflate a toy...

It was a quick snap taken whilst on holiday in Wales about 15 years back, an outdoor shop in the nearest town to where we were camping. I remember this place were notorious for having their inflatable toys for sale well and truly overinflated anyway; the ones inside (usually yellow/blue boats, and large rings hanging from the ceiling) were massively blown tight. I always wondered if it was because it was such a hassle to hang them up, they were blown up tight at the start of the season so they wouldn't need topping up again.

However, the person inflating them possibly didn't realise what would happen on a hot day to toys left outside... though more likely they did. A mate who regularly holidayed in the same town (and who knew I was a looner) told me they'd been there shopping for walking boots and had just left when the staff had been bringing the stock in at the end of the day, and he was captivated by the sight of a student-age female employee with a "48 ball wedged in the (normal-width) side doorway, shoving and kicking it to squeeze the overinflated beachball through the gap. After about 20 seconds of this she angrily yelled to the person inside "Christ, I'll kill her for doing this again!". My mate didn't hear the reply but the lass outside apparently snapped "no I can't, I'll get in shit for poking a hole in it!" (my mate reckoned the bloke inside must have suggested puncturing the toy). Then with an almighty run-up she body-slammed it through the door

Just look how massively overinflated the toys are in the picture! It was a very hot day when I shapped the shot... the whale is so overinflated it's standing on the front two flippers!

Annoyingly the shop doesn't seem to do inflatables anymore, the last time I was there it had changed hands. In any case they stopped having inflatables outside about a year after this pic was taken, I gather due to theft and vandalism of the toys (though to be honest I wonder how much of the 'vandalism' was toys overinflating and seam-splitting on hot days).